Seminole will trim $20M from budget

May 1, 2008|By Sandra Pedicini, Sentinel Staff Writer

Seminole County will move toward making at least $20 million worth of cuts in its upcoming budget today, likely by reducing service levels.

Property-tax reform and a sluggish economy are hitting the county's budget hard, but so is something else: Plans by the county tax collector to offer more services with a new Lake Mary branch office that will have, among other things, "express drivers license" services.

The office is scheduled to open late this year, paid for with money from fees that ordinarily would go to Seminole County's general budget.

Seminole expects to get at least $4 million less in excess fees collected this year from the Tax Collector's Office. Tax Collector Ray Valdes acknowledged his new branch office will consume most of that money.

That doesn't sit well with County Commissioner Carlton Henley, who said he plans to ask at today's commission meeting for an official request from the board asking Valdes to wait.

"I think the timing is really bad for us," Henley said. "I hope it's not too late for him to consider delaying it."

That would be "a very difficult decision," Valdes said. "This train has been coming down the tracks for months now. It would be very difficult and probably not cost-efficient to stop at this point."

Valdes has already bought the building, at 845 Primera Blvd. He has started hiring the eight new employees he will need to help staff it.

Valdes spoke to county commissioners last year about his plans, and at the time they expressed agreement, according to county records.

But Henley noted the startup costs then were estimated to be only between $1.2 million and $2.5 million.

Valdes said costs went up because the office had to buy a larger building than planned.

Typically Valdes, a constitutional officer, returns money from leftover fees to the county's general budget. Many county tax collector's offices throughout Florida require subsidies from their county government to operate, Valdes said.

"I've given over $50 million back in the last 10 years," Valdes said. "Seldom do we even get an 'attaboy' for what we've done."

The Tax Collector's Office operates four other branches in the county, none of which offers drivers-license services. They offer registration, tag and title services, and sale of specialty tags, among other things.

Some tax collector's offices around the state do offer drivers-license services.

None of them is very convenient to Lake Mary, Valdes said. And there is only one drivers-license office in Seminole, operated by the state in Winter Springs. Officials with the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles describe the Winter Springs office as one of the busiest in the state, with about 500 transactions per day.

The Lake Mary office would offer many drivers-license services, though not those that would require a driving test, Valdes said.